Members of the Petroleum Dealers Association, Delta State Chapter on Thursday disagreed with the State Government over outrageous levies by government agencies even as it threatened to shut down filling stations.
Rising from an emergency meeting held in Warri, the association threatened to shut down all its outlets if the Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, failed to call all parties involved in the matter to a negotiation table within the next seven days.
The secretary of the association, Mr. Francis Agetue who spoke to our Correspondent on telephone said that issues of irregular demand notices, double taxation and outrageous bills, mostly from the Delta State Waste Management Board and Committees, had been a source of disagreement.
Mr. Agetue disclosed that the association was no longer comfortable with all the outrageous demand notices being served to their members as some members had also been taken to mobile courts for prosecution.
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He said “the worst of them all is the one from the Delta State Waste Management Board who is giving out demand notices ranging from N200,000 to N500,000 to both Independent and major marketers across the state. We are so aggrieved and that is why as I am here talking to you, we are calling on all the filling stations if they don’t stop embarrassing and harassing our members to shut down operations.
“We have been having meetings with internal revenue board for a harmonized tax payment whereby we have to pay to one account for Delta State collectively, so that government will be able to access that account and the funds.This is why we are calling on both IPMAN and the Independent marketers that within a fortnight we are going to shut down all the filling stations in the state, and until the Governor calls and address the issue and where we stand, who we are paying money to and what we are paying for we may remain closed.”
